It’s never too late to talk about La La Land, so I kinda did that by talking about The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which is basically the movie that La La Land wants to be but can’t because it has lived a very sheltered life. I’m happy to take the opportunity to write a long-form something about a Criterion … Continue reading
Well, how about that? Obit, a film about The New York Times‘ obituaries desk, is as entertaining and informative as it is profound. I liked it! I had a good time with it! I was not overwhelmed by morbidity while watching it, mostly because the film is as far from morbid as a film about death can … Continue reading
Spoiler alert: The title of this week’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a lie. Just thought I should tell you that upfront, because there is just no way anyone could have guessed that on their own, no sir. (This is my shorthand, smartass way of saying that I dug “The Last Ride” in spite of its predictability, because … Continue reading
You know what? Normally I’d write a spiel here, but Slack Bay is kind of hard to give spiel to. It’s weird. It’s fucking weird, even, which is my impolite way of saying that it doesn’t fit easily into any category or genre. Basically, it’s Looney Tunes on France’s northern coast wrapped up in a comedy of manners … Continue reading
If you’ve been watching FX’s Feud, as I have, you’ve either been seduced and dazzled by its depiction of its period in both America and in Hollywood, as well as the central performances given by Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange; or you’ve been put off by the cheapness of Ryan Murphy’s recreation of the era and its … Continue reading
I know what you thought when you read the title on this piece: “It’s April.” Yes, it is, but shut up. Shhhh. Stop. It’s okay. I know it’s April. We all know it’s April. I have gadgets all around me screaming the date at me at any given time during the day. Relax. It’s going to … Continue reading
A short and sweet update on the status of Independent Film Festival Boston: They’ve got their full schedule up (and have had it up for over a week; I’ve just been neglectful, sorry, get off my back), and I strongly recommend that you train your eye-holes on it if you are local to the Boston … Continue reading
Honest admission: I’m not sure if my critique of this week’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine is fair or if I’m just reaching for something critical to say about a pound-for-pound solid episode. It is a little bit of a bummer that the real dramatic “stuff” of the episode is shunted to the side to make space for an A-plot … Continue reading
More than a few times in my conversation with the great director Terence Davies (aside: he’s one of the most unsung masters of cinema working today, in case you didn’t know), who graciously offered me forty minutes of his time to talk about his latest film, A Quiet Passion, he invoked his sense of anger at … Continue reading
I must confess that I found the utter dearth of really great Western films available for streaming on ye olde Netflix not only perplexing, but disturbing. You’re telling me that Netflix can’t manage to put twenty great Western films up on its site, and instead can only manage to put a much smaller number than that, plus … Continue reading
I can’t stop reviewing The Get Down! Actually, no: That’s a lie. I can. And I have. Sad face. Well, c’mon, you didn’t think the show would go on forever, did you? Granted, Netflix split the first season into two halves, which kinda gave the show a sense of unnatural longevity, but we all knew it … Continue reading
More “best movies in theaters” shenanigans, comin’ at ya! This month, we have a slew of mostly new titles, including my favorites of the bunch, Get Out and Colossal, a movie I’ve yet to write anything about* but which I love to the moon and back. It’s basically the movie Trainwreck wanted to be, except that it’s great … Continue reading
I’ll admit it: I have a hard time writing about The Get Down, not for lack of things to say, but because there’s so much that can be said and should be said about it, and so much that needs to be said to satisfy the purpose of a recap. This is what I get for knocking … Continue reading
I say this a lot, particularly whenever Brooklyn Nine-Nine returns to air after its mid-season break or its season ender, but: Brooklyn Nine-Nine is back, baby! Just like Gina Linetti! I failed, in my recap of “The Audit” for Paste Magazine, to properly salute Dirk Blocker for his perfect delivery of that exact line upon Gina’s return … Continue reading
Eyyyyy! I did a podcast again! I did the Over/Under podcast again, in fact! This time, Ryan and Oktay talked about From Dusk Till Dawn as the “over,” and Near Dark as the “under,” which is basically as tempting an invitation as one can offer to Crump, because Near Dark is terrific and From Dusk Till Dawn is much … Continue reading
All’s I can say is, I wish I liked Danièle Thompson’s portrait (ha!) of Émile Zola’s friendship with Paul Cézanne, Cézanne et Moi, better than I actually did. It looks great, as a movie about one of the great French masters of painting ought to, but it is, at the end of the day, just a frigging biopic that … Continue reading
Joe Swanberg did a thing, and I liked the thing that Joe Swanberg did. This is not unusual. I have liked Joe Swanberg things in the past. I have also not liked Joe Swanberg things in the past, because improvisational filmmaking has its ups as well as its downs, the former being the life that … Continue reading
It’s back! The Get Down is back! Sure, we had to wait for the length of one human reproductive cycle for that to happen, but boy, it’s worth it; episodes seven and eight of season one* are stellar, and let me tell you in advance that they generally get better from here (if a bit messier). The best … Continue reading
That Dan Stevens sure is handsome, isn’t he? He’s also ubiquitous. He’s all up in the everywhere. He’s on Legion. He’s in Beauty and the Beast. He’s in Nacho Vigalondo’s excellent new film Colossal. He’s also in The Ticket, Ido Fluk’s new film, which isn’t “excellent” but also isn’t “terrible,” either. It’s a little too specific for its own good. … Continue reading
I really liked Charlie McDowell’s The One I Love, so imagine my disappointment when I watched The Discovery and found that it’s a pile of reluctant, hedging, self-doubting faux-spiritual feel-good nonsense. (“Feel-good” might be a stretch, but boy, the movie bends over backwards to get in as many cheap hugs as possible.) I didn’t hate it, but … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 